Hello,
Bought a 1983 series 3 the other day to use as a towing/launching vehicle at our boat yard. I need the hand brake to work well, so I can stop on the slipway with 3 tonnes of boat on the back and be confident of not killing anyone.
For her age, the drum and pads look in reasonable condition. No sign of any oil anywhere, apart from, weirdly, on the metal part of the TOP brake shoe. I cleaned this off, and it has not reappeared.
I ordered and fitted new shoes anyway, as I read they were a cow to clean if contaminated with oil. The inside of the drum is almost shiny smooth, I tried roughening it with 80G sandpaper, but without taking off the prop shaft its hard to do a decent job of this by hand under the old girl. But it is clean, and not grooved.
When fitting the new shoes today I checked the expander mechanism and it seemed to give a very small movement to the shoes. The expander "pistons" only move out about 0.5mm when manually pulling the rod that the bell crank is attached to (with handbrake lever disconnected) the full distance of travel. Does this sound correct? It seems a very small amount.
When re fitting everything, I made sure the rod linkage length was enough to let the expander back in fully, and I tightened the adjuster until it was just biting, then backed off a "click". I applied and re applied the brake to settle and square the shoes, and repeated the adjuster setting. There is plenty of movement left in the lever, and the bell crank is miles away from hitting the chassis/transfer box thingy.
All to no avail. The only way I can get her to hold her own weight on even a moderate slope (let alone with a trailer) is by over tightening the adjuster, so that it is biting quite hard when the brake is off. She then holds, just, but you can feel the resistance when driving, and the drum feels warm after about 20 ft.
I have heard the brake is supposed to be very good, if properly adjusted. Any ideas what might be my issue? Could the expander be at fault as 0.5mm or so doesnt sound like enough movement to me.
Am thinking I might have to cut a hole between the seats and stick a large screwdriver into the UJ at the front of the propshaft, might be simpler....
Any help much appreciated, but bear with me, I am new to this maintenance malarkey, and new to being a Landy owner too...
Bought a 1983 series 3 the other day to use as a towing/launching vehicle at our boat yard. I need the hand brake to work well, so I can stop on the slipway with 3 tonnes of boat on the back and be confident of not killing anyone.
For her age, the drum and pads look in reasonable condition. No sign of any oil anywhere, apart from, weirdly, on the metal part of the TOP brake shoe. I cleaned this off, and it has not reappeared.
I ordered and fitted new shoes anyway, as I read they were a cow to clean if contaminated with oil. The inside of the drum is almost shiny smooth, I tried roughening it with 80G sandpaper, but without taking off the prop shaft its hard to do a decent job of this by hand under the old girl. But it is clean, and not grooved.
When fitting the new shoes today I checked the expander mechanism and it seemed to give a very small movement to the shoes. The expander "pistons" only move out about 0.5mm when manually pulling the rod that the bell crank is attached to (with handbrake lever disconnected) the full distance of travel. Does this sound correct? It seems a very small amount.
When re fitting everything, I made sure the rod linkage length was enough to let the expander back in fully, and I tightened the adjuster until it was just biting, then backed off a "click". I applied and re applied the brake to settle and square the shoes, and repeated the adjuster setting. There is plenty of movement left in the lever, and the bell crank is miles away from hitting the chassis/transfer box thingy.
All to no avail. The only way I can get her to hold her own weight on even a moderate slope (let alone with a trailer) is by over tightening the adjuster, so that it is biting quite hard when the brake is off. She then holds, just, but you can feel the resistance when driving, and the drum feels warm after about 20 ft.
I have heard the brake is supposed to be very good, if properly adjusted. Any ideas what might be my issue? Could the expander be at fault as 0.5mm or so doesnt sound like enough movement to me.
Am thinking I might have to cut a hole between the seats and stick a large screwdriver into the UJ at the front of the propshaft, might be simpler....
Any help much appreciated, but bear with me, I am new to this maintenance malarkey, and new to being a Landy owner too...
